There's a push right now to democratize strategic planning. Survey the community, poll the staff, put the big calls to a vote.

I get the instinct, but it goes too far. Influence is not the same as decision-making power, and collapsing the two is how good orgs freeze.

In this episode, Eric and Jonathan draft their ideal strategic planning teams fantasy-sports style from a pool of ten possible inputs, and work out how much weight each voice actually deserves.

Episode Highlights:

[00:00:00] Drafting fantasy strategic planning teams from ten possible inputs
[00:02:30] First picks: leadership team vs. the community you serve
[00:05:15] Influence vs. decision-making power, the distinction that runs through everything
[00:08:45] Gut and intuition as a legitimate strategic input
[00:10:45] Data beats opinions, and predictive vs. directional data
[00:15:45] Why boards should support more than they decide
[00:28:30] Synthesizing every input into a decision you can own
[00:33:00] Win-win as a cheat code, and why pleasing everyone signals a weak choice

Notable Quotes:

Eric Ressler [00:05:35]: "The community should have a lot of influence, but I don't think this work usually works when it's truly democratic."

Jonathan Hicken [00:11:05]: "We have a saying at Seymour Center here where data beats opinions 100% of the time."

Eric Ressler [00:33:35]: "If literally everyone is happy, maybe the decision was too obvious and weak."

Resources & Links:

• Designing Tomorrow Spotlight interview with Rob Acton on designing effective nonprofit boards
• Cause Strategy Partners — Rob Acton's firm, focused on nonprofit board placement and governance training

Hosted by Eric Ressler, Founder & Creative Director of Cosmic, with co-host Jonathan Hicken, Executive Director of the Seymour Marine Discovery Center. New episodes every Tuesday.

→ Subscribe: designingtomorrow.show → Work with Cosmic: designbycosmic.com

Listeners, now you can text us your comments or questions by clicking this link.

*** If you liked this episode, please help spread the word. Share with your friends or co-workers, post it to social media, “follow” or “subscribe” in your podcast app, or write a review on Apple Podcasts. We could not do this without you!

We love hearing feedback from our community, so please email us with your questions or comments — including topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes — at podcast@designbycosmic.com

Thank you for all that you do for your cause and for being part of the movement to move humanity and the planet forward.